UK Experts Warn from Increased Popularity of e-Cigarettes among Teens

Promotion of e-cigarettes at a “vape fair” in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP
Promotion of e-cigarettes at a “vape fair” in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP
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UK Experts Warn from Increased Popularity of e-Cigarettes among Teens

Promotion of e-cigarettes at a “vape fair” in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP
Promotion of e-cigarettes at a “vape fair” in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP

UK health experts fear sharp rise in popularity of e-cigarettes among teenagers, as seen in the US Health campaigners have expressed alarm after it emerged that a loophole in the law means it is legal for marketing companies to hand out vapes to children for free, The Guardian reported on Sunday.

British American Tobacco (BAT) is investigating after a 17-year-old was offered a free sample of the company's Vype brand. The minor was not told that the product contained nicotine and was not asked for proof of age.

Vape companies regularly distribute free samples to adults using paid, third-party promotional companies operating in city centers and at festivals and transport hubs. The promotional teams are young, personable and sport the livery of the vape brand they represent. Some use additional free offers such as soft drinks to engage with passersby.

Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) said teams working for Vype had been recently promoting the brand in Brighton, Bristol and Bath, where a 17-year-old girl working on a market stall was approached and offered a free sample, in return for her email address and with no attempt to establish her age.

When it was alerted to claims that minors were being offered free vapes, Ash approached National Trading Standards and was shocked to learn that a loophole in the law means it is not illegal to hand out free e-cigarettes to children.

Ash said that the wording of the relevant sections of the Tobacco and Related Products regulations pertaining to e-cigarettes was too vague when it came to prohibiting the distribution of free products to minors.

Pushing e-cigarettes on young people is a concern for health experts, who fear that the UK will go the way of the US, where vaping's popularity among teenagers has reached epidemic proportions.



Newly Spotted Comet Is Third Interstellar Object Seen in Our Solar System

 This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
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Newly Spotted Comet Is Third Interstellar Object Seen in Our Solar System

 This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Astronomers are tracking a newly spotted comet hailing from parts unknown, only the third time such an interstellar object has been observed visiting our solar system.

According to US space agency NASA, the interloper - named 3I/ATLAS - was first spotted on Tuesday by an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, telescope located in Rio Hurtado, Chile. Astronomers said its unusual trajectory indicated it had ventured from beyond our solar system.

Journeying at a speed of around 37 miles (60 km) per second from the direction of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, 3I/ATLAS is presently located about 420 million miles (670 million kilometers) from Earth.

"Beyond that we do not know very much, and there are many efforts underway to observe this object with larger telescopes to determine composition," University of Hawaii astronomer Larry Denneau, co-principal investigator for ATLAS, said on Thursday.

The only other such interstellar visitors previously observed by astronomers were objects called 1I/'Oumuamua (pronounced oh-MOO-uh-MOO-uh), detected in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019.

"The comet has some similarities to 2I/Borisov in that it appears to be an icy comet, but it is much larger, possibly 10 km (6.2 miles) in diameter," Denneau said.

"It currently has a faint coma," Denneau added, referring to the cloud of gas and dust surrounding a comet's nucleus, "but the coma and tail may increase dramatically as the object comes closer to the sun. Its closest approach to the sun will be later this year, when it will come inside the orbit of Mars. We don't know what will happen, so that's exciting."

Astronomers said the comet poses no threat to Earth and will never come closer than 150 million miles (240 million km) away, equivalent to more than 1-1/2 times the distance between Earth and the sun. It is currently located about 416 million miles (670 million km) from the sun and will reach its closest approach to the sun around October 30, when it will be about 130 million miles (210 million km) away from our star.

The ATLAS network is a NASA-funded telescope survey built and operated by the University of Hawaii, with five telescopes around the world that scan the night sky continuously to look for objects that could threaten Earth.